India's Richest Woman Savitri Jindal Quits Congress, Joins BJP

Former Haryana minister Savitri Jindal quit the Congress and joined the BJP in Haryana's Hisar on Thursday, days after her son and industrialist Naveen Jindal switched parties.

The 84-year-old Ms Savitri Jindal joined the BJP along with her daughter Seema in the presence of Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, former chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar and other BJP leaders.

Announcing her decision to quit the Congress in a social media post late on Wednesday night, she said, "I represented the people of Hisar for 10 years as an MLA and have served Haryana state selflessly as a minister. The people of Hisar are my family and on the advice of my family, I am resigning from the primary membership of the Congress today." 

Savitri Jindal was listed as the richest woman in the country by Forbes India this year.

According to the Forbes list of the 10 richest women in India, Savitri Jindal, the wife of the late industrialist and former minister O P Jindal, has a net worth of USD 29.1 billion (one billion = Rs 100 crore).

In a post on X, Mr Saini said, "We welcome into the BJP family veteran Congress leader, former minister in Haryana government, famous social worker Smt. Savitri Jindal ji and her daughter Smt. Seema Jindal ji." Savitri Jindal was a minister in the previous Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led Congress government in Haryana.

In 2014, she lost to BJP's Kamal Gupta from Hisar. Mr Gupta is currently a minister in the Saini-led government.

Naveen Jindal, who represented Kurukshetra in the Lok Sabha from 2004-14 as a Congress MP, quit the party on Sunday. He has been named as the BJP candidate from Kurukshetra.

After being welcomed into the party fold by Saini and Khattar, Savitri Jindal said, "We will work together to form a strong government at the Centre under (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi's leadership once again." "I express gratitude to every office-bearer and worker of the BJP for making us a member of the 'Modi Parivar'. We will live up to the party's expectations," she said.

Haryana witnessed unprecedented development under the previous Khattar government, she added.

Savitri Jindal further said, "I am impressed by the prime minister's vision of making India a developed nation by 2047." Speaking about her husband O P Jindal, who died in a helicopter crash in 2005, she said he was of the view that India can become a great nation with the upliftment of the downtrodden and economically weaker sections.

"He entered politics with this pledge in 1991. After his demise in March 2005, I entered politics to realise his dreams," she said.

"Hisar is my janam and karam bhoomi. People of Hisar have always showered their love and I also treated them as part of my family," she said.

Savitri Jindal said the country needs the BJP and PM Modi today.

Speaking on the occasion, Saini said the BJP's double-engine government did a lot of development work in the past 10 years.

Party leaders Kamal Gupta, Bhavya Bishnoi, and former governor Ganeshi Lal were also present on the occasion.

Meanwhile, party leaders also inaugurated the election office of Ranjit Singh Chautala, who has been fielded by the BJP from Hisar Lok Sabha seat.

Polling for 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana will be held in the sixth phase on May 25.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)